so that was surreal

i used up too much bandwidth than UL likes, so my laptop has been banned from using the dorm's internet. they never said there was a limit to legal bandwidth use, and i'm pretty peeved. stupid streaming videos. hello from an internet cafe.

i spent all day at wimbledon yesterday. and i mean almost literally all day. i got up at 4am and didn't get back until 11pm. on the practice courts i got to see venus williams, safin, nadal and sharapova. also saw tommy haas beat some guy... turnsnov? then we made the great deal of turning in our grounds passes for some amazing centre court tickets for the ridiculous fee of 5 pounds each! we only got to see one match, but it was safin vs federer - pretty much as marquee as a match you could possibly see this early in the tournament. as much as i detest federer for being too good for his own... good; i couldn't help but be amazed at some of the shots he was making. chalk flying up and everything.

oddest thing was that the players have to take the same paths as the fans to get to the courts. we were just walking around and then martina hingis just walks right past us, three feet away. go figure.

it wasn't until my mom called after the federer/safin match that i learned about the attempted car bombings in london. so that has me a little on edge. scary stuff.

bye for now.

ewww... France

I made it through the "Tast of Britain" tour. We finished off the 4-day excursion with stops in Edinburgh and Scotland, Wales, and - wait for it! - the Josiah Wedgwood Museum! Who's Josiah Wedgewood? I'm still not sure. But there was lots of pottery on display, so I can only assume he has something to do with that.

Today we start our series of five one-day guided tours. First up is taking the "Chunnel" - once thought by me to exist only in myth - deep into the heart of the enemy: Paris, France.

Phantom, my apologies in advance if I call you frantically today asking - "I lost my tour guide and I need to know how to say 'get me the hell out of here' in French!"

Finally, big ups to Timmy winning his 4th NBA title! I guess I can give France a break for giving us Tony Parker. The big question is now - can Timmy catch Jordan and his six titles?

these people talk funny

i can't believe i'm going to be here for another six weeks. i'm currently in a surprisingly nice hotel in Darlington, England - the first place to rest on this "Taste of Britain" tour. i've barely had time to breathe so far. we've seen so much already, i can hardly recall what we've done. um... parliament and the clock tower, cruise on river Thames, that place the Queen lives, stratford-upon-avon, the tower of london, and york. i think that's it. generally speaking. i can't get used to the way people say "schedule." Shed-yool. Weird.

here goes nothing

i'm leaving for the airport in a few hours. i'm on a one-way flight from Charlotte, leaving 7:40pm EST and arriving 8:30am London time. i've never been to another continent before. i don't know what to expect. i watched Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to give me some traveling-related confidence, as well as to ease into hearing the "received pronunciation." i guess it worked. *gulp*

i've loaded up a small luggage bag, a book bag and a messenger bag full of stuff that will cover 10 days of vacationing around the U.K. (and France) followed by 4 weeks of study / who-knows-what in London. i had to sacrifice my running shoes for space to put an extra bag for all the stuff i'm likely to buy over there. who knows if they have gyms in London anyway. i packed my Jack Bauer for President t-shirt so I can have something patriotic to wear July 4th; anti-Americanism overseas be damned.

so if there's a certain brand of "biscuit" of cider somebody wants, lemmie know.

can you mail beer?

Timmy vs. LeBron: Live from the U.K.

I'm pumped for the NBA finals. Timmy and LeBron are polar opposite superstars. One lives on fundamentals, the other on flash. It should make for a compelling contrast. Plus, I'm glad we won't be doing Spurs v Pistons redux from two years ago (not that I minded the end result).

I'd love nothing more than to see King James knocked off his "Next Jordan" thrown while Timmy earns his 4th NBA title in the 10 years he's been in the league. That would be one more than Mr. Jordan himself won in his first 10 years, if you count his un-retirement in '95 as a season.

The only bitter-sweet part of it all is that I'll be in England for the whole thing- not totally unlike Phantom's "London 5am" World Series experience. Chalk it up to karma.

insert hallelujah chorus

It was about 10 years ago that the Harris-Teeter in uptown Mooresville closed, and I remarked that it would make a great spot for a Best Buy. It eventually became some lame furniture store. Ever since then I've been not-so-patiently waiting for one to open around here. We've got every other conceivable business, store or restaurant. Additions from the past few months include a bowling alley, Chili's, Steak n' Shake, Panda Express, a sports bar, Salad Works, Bed Bath & Beyond, and the headquarters of Lowe's' Hardware on the way. It boggled my mind that a town that was expanding so exponentially couldn't have a frakking Best Buy.

Well, that reign of terror is finally over. June 1st marked the grand opening of our very own store. I bought a couple of CDs to celebrate.

We may all sleep easy now. And I can stop calling my congressman.